‘The mundane Magpie Mason’

    

Still in the box with the foam thing!

Well here’s a boring edition of The Magpie Mason: I bought a second-hand lapel pin. Please hold your applause until you’ve read to the bottom.

Having reached the twenty-fifth anniversary of being raised to the Sublime Degree two months ago, I was reminded of the special badges that commemorate such milestones, so I looked around online last week for something appropriate and found several different designs easily enough. Don’t ask me why they’re priced at $18 plus shipping. I know everything costs more today than a year ago, but come on. It’s a lapel pin, generic with the S&C and a 25.

Then I remembered eBay, which I haven’t looked at in years. And there was the handsome item above available for only a few dollars. Described as pre-owned, but never worn, it hails from an estate sale in, if I recall, Brooklyn. Super fast delivery, and here it is.

Etsy

It differs from what I think is the official design of the Grand Lodge of New York’s anniversary pin, which is silver (as in silver anniversary) and depicts the Grand Lodge seal, encircled in blue enamel, wherein reads GRAND LODGE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, beneath which, inside an irregular pentagon, is the number 25.

A number of grand lodges employ similar compositions. My previous grand lodge calls them Silver Tokens. Which brings me to a conundrum:

I’ve been a Freemason twenty-five years, but I have been a New York Mason only for the past eight years, so I’d bet it’s considered untactful to wear this. I doubt there’s a commandment proscribing it; I would think it’s more like an etiquette point. I’ll wait and see if Aldo notices. Let me also mention that I never see anyone wearing these pins.

I mean I am going to wear it—listen, I ain’t gonna be around for No. 50—so if you see me, my usual Masonic Society badge will be replaced temporarily, through November, with this one.

I can’t believe I just pecked out a couple hundred words about a lapel pin.